Road trip to Qld with photo's

RepSpec · 15-07-2007, 11:39 AM

this maybe a long post but worth it, a good read

hey all as some of you on here know i went on holiday to qld, and i drove up with my mate chris (meaned) in my panelvan. the trip was to take 2 days leaving melbourne on thursday the 5th and get to the Gold coast by saturday or friday nite.

we left at 5am on the thursday and made a quick stop off at the mobile servo for some maccas on the other side of the westgate. we were making very good time and where nearing the border at Tocumwall by 930ish.

we were aided on our trip by a gps that was very helpful to a point. as we headed closer to the border it told us to make a left off a main road, so we followed. 1st mistake... it took us down a narrow one lane back road and eventually to a state forest! which was designated a "dry weather track", it had been raining a bit but we kept goin, making a few wrong turns thanks to the gps, nearly getting bogged but eventually we made it to the newell hwy.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...d/P7050165.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...d/P7050174.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...d/P7050164.jpg

we made it to coonabaraban the first nite and got up by 7 the next morning to gunedah for breaky where we took this photo of an ea wagon chop!

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...tudd/eaute.jpg

making great time we were going to be in broadbeach by 6 that nite we hit our 2nd bump in the road when the car just died! doing a few quick test we couldnt find anything wrong so i rang the racv and eventually got a nrma driver out to do some tests on it only to have to get the car...towed back to Guyra in central nsw. we waited 3 hrs only to find that...i had ran out of fuel!

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...knowswhere.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...udd/towed2.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...yraontruck.jpg

so off we went a few hours behind schedule and continued on. this is where it got fun! we were about 30 kms out of Tenterfield traveling along at about 5pm when out of the corner of my eye bouncing into the road i saw Skippy. he jumped onto the road, then off again, the straight infront of me, just as i hit the brakes, he slammed into the front left of the car and then straight under, with bones cracking and tyres screeching.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...d/sideskip.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...udd/truck2.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...inradiator.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...d/topfront.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../frontshop.jpg

he had been pushed into the front of the car, bending the aircon condenser and pushing the radiator through the fan, breaking the left head light cluster and breaking the front bumper.

the racv was useless when they found out it had been an accident, i have total care but because it was an accident they told me to speak to my insurance company, they told me to speak to the racv, who then put me onto the roads and accidents commission or something who then put me on to the tow truck to tenterfield. this happened in the half hour after i hit the roo

due to the fact that i dont have full comp insurance i have to wear the cost of it, and the tow which was $300 for 60kms. and the car is still in Tenterfield getting fixed

so it was a good experience but not one id want to do again

Turboconvert · 15-07-2007, 12:11 PM

mate, thats gotta suck! hope it works out for ya mate. i should imagine u would have started developing a twitch by the end of this episode

:

**fordomatic** · 15-07-2007, 12:19 PM

I've done that trip 4 times, brissy to melbourne and back. I've driven at all times of the day and never even come close to hitting a roo (touches wood). I think i've been extremely lucky. Hope it all works out and you get the car back some time soon.

irlewy86 · 15-07-2007, 12:24 PM

I found the major worry with driving between Brissie and Melbourne is the loctus's on the Newell. One trip you couldn't see the road for about 4k cause it was just covered in dead bugs. Took 3 hours to pick them all off the car once in Melbourne

MeLLy · 15-07-2007, 12:53 PM

omg!
sounds like some really bad luck, I've done a adelaide-sydney run and back and only came across one roo, it jumped in front of me, i hit the breaks and it kept hopping across the road so i didnt hit it, this was at like 2am though, i just didnt wanna stop driving. Then i crossed the hay plains and hid behind some trucks so they would hit any roos before me

....But i guess i was also very lucky!...I hope you get it fixed soon & that it doesnt permently ruin your thoughts on road trips :P...Also its funny how gprs's can be wrong, i printed out a map from the raa and that got me lost,bogged and sliding down a hill sideways in the rain & fog at 100kms an hour LOL...I Was stupidly trying to make up for lost time, but i didnt crash so alls good haha...

RepSpec · 15-07-2007, 12:59 PM

yeah the mud was a bit of fun, but after we got picked up after hitting the roo, within 1km we saw 4 more dead on the side of the road and 1 eating grass alive on the side of the road

Falcon_Crazy · 15-07-2007, 02:00 PM

Not a great trip mate thats fo sure. ive hit a few roos, but only once did it stop me. That was my first XF - Skip was a small eastern grey and he dived down just as the F hit him head on - his head stuck in my radiator but that was all.
Hit a few in my RTV but only minor damage..

Mate hit a Wombat - it rippe the undercarriage out of his Dunnydore...said it was like hitting a solid rock!

RepSpec · 15-07-2007, 02:13 PM

yeah luckily for me he wasnt a huge bugger but still big enough to do damage, and that he went under the car not over the top

Keepleft · 15-07-2007, 05:04 PM

Always handy to run a UHF amongst other advocated safety gear on long trips.

Harold Scruby should note the damage that Skippy poses and on that basis would do well to embrace the delight that is the bull bar, on both 4WD's and cars.

That said, a big red took the steel bull bar off the chassis mount and pushed the upper side-lobe bar into the Troopies fender area on a recet trip NW NSW. Rope was used to secure the thing after that hit.

Winch then rendered ineffective, naturally.

savagE · 15-07-2007, 05:07 PM

Dude that sucks. My mate last week going from Coolangatta to Albury Wodonga Hit a roo, smashed his XK ute. Good nick is was in as well. Needs new side panel and bonnet. Solid XKs were.

XHUTE6 · 15-07-2007, 09:23 PM

Bullbar or not, you'll still be disabled if you hit a roo at a substantial speed.

I lived in the country for 6 months last year and i hit 2 roos and i only travelled in my ute for 17kms each way in and out of Tintinara while i drove a Rigid to Adelaide and back each day. I hit 1 roo at 10km/h at 11pm one day after hitting the anchors and a few months later from behind a tree out jumped skip and i hit him at 80km/h. It pushed my 5 Poster bullbar back and down into my front left, smashed headlight, indicator and repeater and severely dented my front left fender. my front left locked up from the bullbar and i skidded to a stop...
My Bullbar twisted and crumpled. I called the company i bought the bullbar from to see what can be done and the bloke "Davo" reckons after hitting a roo, most people come back and buy a new one! at $1850 plus Panel/light repair, what a sales ploy...
Cost me $1200 all up and still have the crumpled bullbar on. i'm waiting to get the VENOM bar on the front.

Not having a go at any comments on this thread..

I just laugh at the amount of "Country Boys and Girls" in the Ute scene who claim in their fake accents they hit plenty of roos on the highway all the time. You inspect their vehicle and there's not a mark apart from the dirt they spray on the side of their vehicle when they leave their innercity suburb to go out to a local ute muster with their 10 gallon hat complete with 20 similar ear tags they printed up at the local merchandiser. (Breathe) Lee Kernaghan blaring out of their CarTOYS filled interior, Oversized Mudflaps dragging, taking every back road onto the arterials so they look like they've just come from "Outback". must be hundreds of rooted bullbars out there...

I know there are proper country boys and girls out there as i've been in the ute scene since well before i was licensed but they are outnumbered roughly 20-1 by "Suburban Cowboys"

:

Its a subject i'm very passionate about.

I used to be a suburban cowboy until i looked in the mirror

Sorry to hear about your Van XG. B@stards just pop out don't they.. nothing you can do about it... Go back and do your trip again..

I see plenty of them when i go to Brissy. Hundreds of them just sitting there on the edge. Even in a truck they're a hazard, knock your fuel lines out if they go under. dim your lights and they rarely cross your path.
Emu's a funny when they cross your path, they get halfway and realise they're not gonna make it. They turn around and their head whips. Smack!

XHUTE6 · 15-07-2007, 09:40 PM

i like that.. i'll make it my signature

Outbackjack · 16-07-2007, 12:33 AM

Driving on the Stuart hwy, both north and south of Alice, at night time is a real experience. My record is 5 roos in one night driving from Cooper Peedy to Alice. Should be about a 6 hour drive. It took 10 hours. I was driving a GU patrol with a proper steel roo bar, with a pair of light force 240's mounted. Still couldn't avoid them. I had a trailer on the back with my little datsun roadster on it. Thanks to the steel roo bar, there was no damage to the car except for a torn off mud flap. And I had to get out and adjust my driving lights every time I clobbered one. It is a real strange sensation to see a roo disappear under the front of the car, you can feel it getting tumbled and smashed under the car as you run over it, and then you look in the rear view mirror and see the trailer get lifted up and the down again. It is not a pleasant experince going back and dragging the corpse of the road... You should of seen the look on my sons face when I asked him to walk back and drag a dead one off the road while I fixed the driving lights again!!

[Tonko] · 16-07-2007, 02:12 PM

Sucks to hear XGman, Hope you get it all sorted good as new...
Old man hit a big red roo years ago in his XA ute, It went over the bonnet and hit the inside of the tailgate, So dad pulled over expecting to have to drag this huge roo out and when he looked at it, it was standing up, trying to get away but it got its tail stuck in the tailgate, Not wanting to open the tailgate and have it jump out on him he rang the local copper to see what to do, So he shot it...

Mum hit a wombat in her laser, It was written off, but the wombat shook it off and kept going... cheeky bugger...

XHUTE6 · 17-07-2007, 10:06 PM

Wombats are one of the worst things to run over eh?
I hit a cow in moree early this year. My boss and i were heading up north in convoy. 2 AM, He drove past and spooked it onto the road, i hit it. Sprayed Sh.t all over the front left.. not a mark on my bullbar...

dallasv8 · 18-07-2007, 11:36 AM

roos would have to be one of the dumbest animals ever.

ef_classic · 18-07-2007, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallasv8

roos would have to be one of the dumbest animals ever.

Amen to that.

I was driving home one day on a rural road and one jumped out, i tried to mis him but he kept following my headlights!!!

Hit him doing about 40-60ks.

And i was amazed to only find very minor damage on my ef.

Another time my cousin was drving his dads XR6T when one jumped out and hit that car on the front left side.